Small Georgia town pushes back on plan for massive immigration detention center

A small town about 45 miles east of Atlanta has become a focal point of resistance against the Trump administration’s expanding immigration policy.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements plans to convert a warehouse into one of the nation’s largest immigration detention centers that could house around 9,000 detainees, according to The Washington Post. 

However, around 100 residents of Social Circle, a town of just 5,415 people, gathered at a meeting last week to express their distaste for the facility. 

Shane Short, president and CEO of the Walton County Development Authority, told 11 Alive that they have not received any official communication from the federal government. He said the town only has one warehouse that fits the description in the Washington Post article, and the town depends on the industry and tax revenue generated from the facility.

“That’s one of our largest buildings that we have available to recruit industry with,” Short said. “This is a small community and we need the tax revenue from that building.”

John Miller, who helped organize the meeting, told 11 Alive that losing the warehouse to the federal government would cost the city more than $500,000 in property taxes this year.

“If the federal government comes in and takes over this project, we will see that drop to zero,” Miller said. “How did this happen? How did we get this far down the road and no one knows anything?”

The Washington Post reported that the city, which has a population of just over 5,000 people, is already near capacity for its water and sewer systems.

Walton County, which mostly encompasses Social Circle, went to President Donald Trump in 2024 with nearly 73% of the vote.